Jürgen Haffer

Who is Jürgen Haffer?

Jürgen Haffer was a German ornithologist, biogeographer, and geologist. He is most remembered for his theory of Amazonian forest refugia during the Pleistocene that would have contributed to speciation and the diversification of the biota.

At the age of 13 he had found a dead bird with a ring and had taken it to the Berlin Museum where he met Erwin Stresemann who took time to explain to him the purpose of ringing. This made a big impression on him and it marked the beginning of his ornithological interest.

He was the fourth child of Oskar Haffer and Margarete. His father was a high school teacher with a training in biology who encouraged an interest in natural history. After schooling, Haffer worked during the summer of 1951 under Stresemann before going to university. Knowing that ornithology did not offer a career, he studied geology and paleontology. He obtained a Diploma in 1956 and continued on for a doctoral degree in 1957 at the University of Göttingen - working on "Early heterodont Lamellibranchs of the Rhineland Devonian".